OZZY OSBOURNE Will 'Probably' Retire 'Within The Next Five To Ten Years'

Ozzy Osbourne's son Jack spoke to Collider about the upcoming "Biography: The Nine Lives Of Ozzy Osbourne" documentary, which will premiere this summer. The film, which A&E produced as part of its "Biography" series, celebrates Ozzy's life and features interviews with Sharon, Rick Rubin, Ice-T, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Jonathan Davis and Post Malone. Ozzy, Sharon and Jack executive produced the picture, which former "Osbournes" producer R. Greg Johnston directed.

"I'd done a documentary ['God Bless Ozzy Osbourne'] on my dad, back in 2010," he said. "We were doing 'Ozzy & Jack's World Detour', back when A&E first approached us. They were like, 'We're bringing back 'Biography', and we want to do an Ozzy biography.' And my response was, 'Well, I don't wanna be backed into your format for the documentary because it's a very generic, standard thing.' And they were, like, 'No, we'll change 'Biography'.' So, we got into the nitty gritty of how we wanted it to go. I have a production company, so it was, like, 'Why not do it with us 'cause we can get the access?' Ultimately, I can't take much credit for the documentary 'cause it was really Greg Johnston, the director's vision. We say, 'Hey, listen, take the gloves off and make a documentary.' He's a huge music lover and fan, and we've worked together since he was one of the original executive producers of 'The Osbournes'. We have such a long history of working with him, and he has such an understanding of us, personally, as a family, and my father's career that it was very much a no-brainer to have him take the helm. I think he knocked it out of the park. And as far as timing, it's been 10 years since the last doc came out and a lot has changed. Within the next five to ten years, my dad's probably gonna retire, so I just felt like it was a good time."

Asked how hard it was it to show Ozzy's Parkinson's diagnosis, and to have to hear and process that diagnosis himself, while he was on camera, Jack said: "The toughest thing for me about that process was that, with someone like my dad, who has been a part of his craft and actively working for 50 years, is that, when you tell that person, 'Hey, you might not be able to do that anymore,' the worry is that, like when a racehorse can't race anymore, they lose the will to keep going, and that was my worry. He got this really godawful diagnosis and he had a bad injury, as a result of it, and there was genuine fear that he might not be able to perform his craft anymore. That was what I found very upsetting."

He continued: "He's in a different place now from when we shot that. He's doing much better. He's come to terms with where he's at a little bit more, and he's slowly recovering. I do think he'll make it back out on the road, eventually. It was just a really tough thing to face. He had this whole tour planned, and it was difficult for him. It was difficult for all of us because we just saw how hard he was taking it."

Ozzy, who turned 71 last December, has repeatedly said that he is not calling it quits, despite the fact that his "No More Tours 2" is being billed as his farewell tour.

"I'm not retiring," he said last year. "I'm just not doing world tours anymore. [In the past, I would] leave my house [in] January and come back at the end of the year. It should be, I'm slowing it down. But I can never say when I'm going to check out. I can never tell."

The singer's wife and manager Sharon revealed in March that he was forced to cancel his trip to Switzerland to see a doctor who specializes in treatment of Parkinson's disease.

Ozzy was scheduled to travel in April for radical treatment to help him live with his progressive neurological condition. But Sharon said on "The Talk" that as movement around the world has become more restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ozzy had no choice but to call off the trip for now.

Ozzy had previously canceled his 2020 tour plans, even before the spread of the virus, in order to head overseas for treatment of his Parkinson's disease and other health issues.

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